BACK FROM THE BRINK
After getting shot in the head in 2016, therewas a 99 percent chance Damari Hendrix wouldn’t survive his first operation. During his long road back, he recalled: ‘ I couldn’t walk yet, but Iwanted to shoot a basketball.’ The Foreman junior returned to pra
‘‘ I didn’t know I was hit until I was running and my body started shutting down. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk or move.’’ — Damari Hendrix
Labor Day violence is a tragic fact of life in Chicago. For some, it’s something to read about, lines of text with ages and locations. For others, those names belong to friends and family who’ve had their lives taken away or ripped apart.
Damari Hendrix was one of those lines of text on Labor Day weekend in 2016: “Sixteen- year- old boy shot in LaFollette Park. He was shot in the head and went to Mount Sinai in critical condition.”
Doctors told Jorie Hendrix, Damari’s mom, that there was a 99 percent chance he wouldn’t survive the operation they had to perform on his head.
“I don’t know why, but I just knew he would be OK,” Jorie Hendrix said. “Damari is my fighter. That’s been my outlook ever since the incident happened.”
Hendrix survived. He relearned how to talk and walk. Against all odds, the Foreman junior was back on the basketball court Monday, dunking during the first practice of the season.
LaFollette Park is where Hendrix and his friends hang out. He grew up there. On the Saturday night of the shooting, Hendrix was there with his little brother, his teammate Bobby Hughes and other boys and girls.
“It was a normal day,” Hendrix said. “On Saturdays, the older people play five- on- fives. We waited until they were done and played until it got too dark. Then we were just sitting around, laughing and having a good time.”
Then, in the distance, Hendrix saw a group walking toward them.
“In that neighborhood, when you see a group of people walking toward you, you need to move,” Hendrix said. “Right away, I told my little brother to leave, and he headed home. We started grabbing our stuff and then they started shooting at us.
“I didn’t know I was hit until I was running and my body started shutting down. I couldn’t see, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t talk or move.”
Hendrix had dreadlocks, so the paramedics initially couldn’t find the gunshot.
“Then they started squeezing my head, and the bullet came out,” Hendrix said. “The blood started gushing, and it was hot.”
Hendrix had three surgeries and was in a medically induced coma for four days. The rehabilitation was a battle.
“I was in therapy three times a day for four months,” Hendrix said. “I was on a liquid diet. Everything came back slowly. It was a month or two until I could talk. I didn’t think I would ever hoop again. I was giving away my hooping shoes. I really didn’t think I was going to play sports again.”
Hughes and some friends visited Hendrix at the hospital. Hendrix was in a wheelchair, but they went up to the roof, where there’s a court.
“I couldn’t walk yet, but I wanted to shoot a basketball,” Hendrix said. “That was a big moment. When you’re a kid, you want things to happen quick and fast, and it just wasn’t happening fast enough for me.”
Hendrix was home- schooled his sophomore year. The isolation and rehabilitation were difficult.
“Waking up in the morning was tough sometimes,” Hendrix said. “You don’t remember right away that you can’t do everything you used to do. Then you look in the mirror and realize it.
‘‘ It isn’t great waking up that way.”
The shooter was never caught. Jorie Hendrix says the police lost interest in the case when they found out her son survived.
“That doesn’t matter to me,” Jorie Hendrix said. “I have my child’s life. That’s all that matters.”
Monday was just practice. Foreman’s first game is Nov. 20.
“It will be like LeBron’s return to Cleveland,” Foreman junior Ramonte Walker said. “Everyone is so excited to see him back on the court, all the students and teachers.”